Biopesticides could fill ‘gap in market’

There is a “vacuum in the market” created by the withdrawal of chemical crop protection products without a relaxing of restrictions for biopesticides to enable them to fill the gap.
 

That is the view of two biopesticide companies, Russell IPM and Bionema, who were exhibiting at Fruit Focus on 22 July.
 

Minshad Ansari, managing director of Wales-based Bionema, said small companies who are developing biopesticides are unable to bear the cost of bringing a new product to market, as they are subject to the same tests as chemical products. He argued that there should be a different set of regulations for biopesticides, which are less harmful to human and environmental health, to allow quicker commercial development.
 

At the moment, he said, growers do not have enough tools or sufficient knowledge of how to run proper integrated crop protection programmes, so their businesses suffer when chemical products are withdrawn or restricted.
 

There are currently around 15 biopesticide products available in the UK, which come under four categories: bioinsecticides, pheromone monitoring, biofungicides and botanicals.
 

Bionema is currently filing for a patent for a bioinsecticide that tackles Western Flower Thrips, a pest that affects strawberry plants. Ansari said the development process has so far taken seven years, and he expects it will be another two years until the as-yet-unnamed product will be available commercially.
 

“Growers now have to show they have used at least one biological control in their pest management – there is a quota to fill. So it is in their interests if there are more products available,” he said.
 

In addition to helping growers fulfill quotas, Ansari claimed that the cost of one application of bioinsecticide is equivalent to the total cost of having to re-apply chemical protection to crops, as well as being less harmful to the environment.
 

Nayem Hassan, head of R&D at Russell IPM, said there are currently too many hurdles for small biopesticide companies to cross, while the high cost of tests and replications means only the large agro-chemical companies can afford to bring new products to market.
 

The president of the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association (IBMA), Willem Ravensberg, recently wrote in a Spring newsletter that European Parliament Commissioner Andriukaitis is concerned that farmers do not have enough tools for efficient integrated crop protection. “Today we feel that he supports the IBMA position that low risk plant protection products could help fill that gap and that biopesticides are an important part of IPM,” he wrote.
 

“Of course this includes a basic willingness to consider how these low risk products can be brought to the market in a more timely manner and that legislative.”